In The Headlines

On May 1, a million-dollar effort to raise money for Pittsburgh-area food banks and food pantries will get underway. The Critical Needs Alert, which was put together by The Pittsburgh Foundation, will run from 8 a.m. until midnight, with donors able to make their donations at pittsburghgives.org and pittsburghfoundation.org.

This year, several artists were awarded grants from the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Heinz Endowments to participate in the festival. They include Heather Hopson presenting Single Mom Defined, a photo essay exhibition and video series meant to empower single mothers, dancer Brandon-Ahmauri McClendon and R&B group Water Seed.

The Pittsburgh Foundation has scheduled a daylong, online giving event on May 1 to benefit regional food pantries and nonprofit organizations that supply them. The event is part of the philanthropy’s series of Critical Needs Alerts that since 2013 have raised nearly $4 million to help people impacted by homelessness, hunger and other basic human needs.

Neighbor-Aid came together in early 2009, shortly after a federal report spelled out just how devastating the nationwide recession was and after it became evident that the community’s need for services would overwhelm the budgets of local nonprofits. “I think we didn’t believe this could happen to us as a nation,” said Jeanne Pearlman, senior vice president for Program and Policy at the Pittsburgh Foundation, who was the foundation’s education grants officer in 2008.

On May 1, The Pittsburgh Foundation will be holding 16 hours of giving as part of what it is calling a critical needs alert. It’s an urgent effort to raise money to help more than 170 food pantries in the Pittsburgh region. The goal is to raise $1 million, with $600,000 being seeded by The Pittsburgh Foundation and its key donors.

The new “Little Dreamers” program will mirror the six-week summer camp for older students, but with programming tailored for younger children. The funding is supported by The Pittsburgh Foundation, the Grable Foundation and McAuley Ministries.